Prospect Talent Score

Probability of Success

History

Andreas Thuresson was overlooked in the first year he was eligible for the draft. Scored impressive 10 goals and 5 assists as a SEL rookie with Malmö in 2006-07.

2007-08: Thuresson had an impressive season in what was his first taste of North American hockey. In 77 games with the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL) he scored 11 goals and seven assists. The forward also played in six postseason games, but failed to register any points.

2008-09: Thuresson played 74 games in his second year with Milwaukee, scoring 14 goals, 15 assists for 29 points. He added 3 goals, 1 assist in 11 playoff games.

2009-10: Thuresson made his NHL debut with Nashville at the end of October and split time between the Predators and their AHL affiliate Milwaukee in his third North American season. In 22 games for the Predators he scored 1 goal with 2 assists and was -5 while averaging 10 minutes of ice time per game. Thuresson played 50 games for Milwaukee during the regular season, scoring 14 goals with 19 assists and was +13 with 24 PMs. Thuresson was the leading scorer for the Admirals in the playoffs with 2 goals and 7 assists; finishing +3 in seven games with 16 PMs. Thuresson was re-signed to a one-year contract by Nashivlle in June 2010.

2010-11: Thuresson skated in three games for the Predators in mid-January; spending most of the season in the AHL with Milwaukee. He was scoreless and -1 with 2 PMs seeing just over ten minutes of ice time per game with Nashville. In 76 AHL games with the Admirals he scored 14 goals with 24 assists and was +3 with 41 PMs. He skated in all 13 playoff games for Milwaukee and was +2 with 3 goals, 3 assists and 10 PMs. Thuresson was obtained by the Rangers for Brody Dupont in a trade with Nashville in July 2011 and signed a one-year contract with New York.

Talent Analysis

He's a two-way player who shoots right, has good size, is aggressive and plays physical and has decent offensive skills.

Future

Expected to start the season in Connecticut, Thuresson has not been able to yet make the transition to the NHL. A very successful start to the season with the Whale may bring an early call-up.

It’s that time of year again when the twon of Kamloops, British Columbia hosts some of the best Bantam Teams and players from across Canada and the United States. The Detroit Compuware team, a regular fixture at the tournament are joined by three other U.S. based teams, the Michigan Ice Dogs, Cleveland Barons and Team Illinois. Kamloops will have two teams in the tourney with the Triple “AAA” Kamloops Jardine Blazers and the Double “AA” Kamloops Dolson Raiders. The remaining 19 teams in the tournament come from across Canada inlcuding, B.C. (3), Alberta (11), Saskatchewan (2) and Ontario (2).

“We’re excited and there is a lot of energy. We knew we had to win t and we did the small things right,” said center Peter White.

Ten points behind first place Philadelphia in mid- February and despite call-ups and untimely injuries-the Norfolk Admirals are 8-1-2 in the last 11 games clinched a playoff for the second year of the franchises existence and extended their winning streak to six last weekend.

Norfolk swept their two home games by defeating the last place Portland Pirates 1-0 Friday and Philly 6-0 on Saturday and sent the reeling third place Philadelphia to another loss with a 4-0 victory on the road Sunday night. With their sixth straight win and only allowing one goal in the last three games, the Admirals now lead the former first place team by seven points.

Portland 1 Admirals 2

With a stellar performance from Craig Anderson and goals from Valerie Zelepukin and Quintin Laing gave the Admirals more room to breath in the Southern Conference.Quintin Laing put the first goal on the board for Norfolk on a power play at 15:29 of the game. Norfolk who out shot Portland by 12 by the second period constantly bombarded the goalie and defense.

With consecutive shots amiss, veteran Valerie Zelepukin found the back of the net in the last three minutes before intermission. However, Anderson lost his shut out in the last few seconds of the third period. “The kid played a heck of a game and we work together to do the little things right,” said Jean-Yves Leroux who had assist in the second perio Read more»

As expected, the Minnesota Wild were very quiet last Tuesday, making onlyone minor deal leading up to the much anticipated NHL trade deadline. Minnesota’s only move sent C Darryl Laplante to the Boston Bruins for LW Greg Crozier.

Crozier, a third round pick (73rd overall) of the Pittsburgh Penguins in1994, has played only one NHL game in his career. The 25 year old has spentall season with the Providence Bruins (AHL) this season, tallying 11 pointsin 54 games. He was assigned to the Houston Aeros following the trade.

Laplante, meanwhile, has played in the minors with Houston all season, with17 points in 31 games, and never played a game in a Wild uniform.

Park shines

With Sergei Zholtok on the sidelines, C Richard Park has been given moretime on the power-play and more ice time, overall. Park took advantage ofthe extra action to bang home two power-play goals in Monday’s 4-2 win,including the game winner.

It was the first two-goal game of Park’s career, and extended the SouthKorean’s season totals to eight goals and 12 assists in 51 games.

This is Park’s first season in the NHL since 1998-99 when he played sevengames with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Trainer’s Room

Minnesota was able to take two positives out of Saturday afternoon’s loss asD Brad Bombardir and C Wes Walz returned to action. Bombardir missed fourgames with a sore right ankle, while Walz had been on the shelf since theOlympic break with injuries to his chest and left shoulder.

It didn’t happen very often in the history of Czech hockey that a line would be so dominatingon the international junior stage like the Vojtech Polak-Petr Vrana-Ivo Kratena line. Youngguns of the late 80’s Jaromir Jagr, Bobby Holik and Robert Reichel also formed a great lineand the three 1985 born blue-chippers draw many comparisons to them when speaking abouttheir level of skill. The scorer of this line and the most offensive player is the rightwinger Vojtech Polak, the current captain of the Czech Under-17 team.

Vojtech Polak had ‘hockey player’ written all over him since he was born. Just like many stars of thepast and future he was born in a hockey family. His dad, also of the name Vojtech Polak, isa respected youth coach and the current coach of Karlovy Vary’s 5th grade team. Just as thelittle Vojtech could walk, he also became his first pair of skates and his dad laced him thetights up for the first time. So it came that already at the age of two years Vojtech Polaktook his first strides. He was born in the small city Ostrov nad Ohri, but lives his wholelife in the famous spa city Karlovy Vary and at the local rink he also learned how to keepbalance on his skates. The little kid was very talented, when he was four, Vojtech was alreadya solid skater for his age, took the stick into his hands and touched the black piece ofrubber for the first time. His hockey career began very early, at the mere age of four VojtechPolak was admitted into the Karlovy Vary’s pre-novice cathegory and also played his firstgame. From the very first gam Read more»

Most NHL prospects go through ups and downs throughout their development. Therefore timing becomes an important factor in developing players. The key to success is to play well when the opportunity arises. Grab the bull by the horns, as the cliché goes. Michael Ryder and Joni Puurula are both solid examples of players playing well at the right time.

Puurula is a goaltender who plays for HPK in the Finnish SM-Liga. The Montréal Canadiens drafted him in the 8th round (243rd overall) of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The native of Kokkola, Finland suffered from a virus through most of the 2001-02 season, appearing in his first SM-Liga regular season game on January 1st, 2002. He played 9 games from that point through to the end of the season; finishing with an 8-0-1 record, a 2.09 goals against average, and .912 save percentage.

Playing on a strong team with a veteran goalie in front of him, Puurula was expected to watch from the bench as starting goalie Mika Pietila carried the team through the playoffs. All that changed when Pietila went down with an injury. Puurula was thrust into his first SM-Liga playoff action, and looked like a seasoned veteran in the process. To date, he’s played in all 3 of the team’s playoff games. He has a 2-0 record, an incredible 0.80 GAA, and an impressive .964 save percentage; both his playoff save percentage and goals against average lead the league.

The 19-year old was named first star in the first playoff game he appeared in, and won the fair-play award in each of his other two appearances. If we look at the 5′ Read more»